1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and methods for enhancing properties of tissue repaired or joined by surgical staples and, more particularly to surgical instruments and methods designed to apply and confine a non-mechanical biocompatible wound closure material to enhance the properties of repaired or adjoined tissue at a target surgical site.
2. Background of Related Art
Throughout the years the medical field has utilized various techniques in an effort to join or bond body tissue together. Historically, suturing was the accepted technique for rejoining severed tissues and closing wounds. Suturing was historically achieved with a surgical needle and a suturing thread, and more recently, with a variety of polymeric or metallic staples, as will be discussed below. The intended function of sutures is to hold the edges of a wound or tissue against one another during the healing process so as to reduce discomfort, pain, scarring and the time required for healing.
Staples have recently been used to replace suturing when joining or anastomosing various body structures, such as, for example, the bowel or bronchus. The surgical stapling devices employed to apply these staples are generally designed to simultaneously cut and seal an extended segment of tissue in a patient, thus vastly reducing the time and risks of such procedures.
Linear or annular surgical stapling devices are employed by surgeons to sequentially or simultaneously apply one or more linear rows of surgical fasteners, e.g., staples or two-part fasteners, to body tissue for the purpose of joining segments of body tissue together and/or for the creation of anastomosis. Linear surgical stapling devices generally include a pair of jaws or finger-like structures between which body tissue to be joined is placed. When the surgical stapling device is actuated and/or “fired,” firing bars move longitudinally and contact staple drive members in one of the jaws, and surgical staples are pushed through the body tissue and into/against an anvil in the opposite jaw thereby crimping the staples closed. A knife blade may be provided to cut between the rows/lines of staples. Examples of such linear surgical stapling devices are Models “GIA™” and “Endo GIA™” instruments available from United States Surgical, a Division of Tyco Health-Care Group, LP, Norwalk, Conn. and disclosed in, inter alia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,896 to Allen et al., the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Annular surgical stapling devices generally include an annular staple cartridge assembly including a plurality of annular rows of staples, typically two, an anvil assembly operatively associated with the annular cartridge assembly, and an annular blade disposed internal of the rows of staples.
Another type of surgical stapler is an end-to-end anastomosis stapler. An example of such a device is a Model “EEA™” instrument available from United States Surgical, a Division of Tyco Health-Care Group, LP, Norwalk, Conn. and disclosed in, inter alia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,979 to Green et al., the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. In general, an end-to-end anastomosis stapler typically places an array of staples into the approximated sections of a patient's bowels or other tubular organs. The resulting anastomosis contains an inverted section of bowel which contains numerous “B” shaped staples to maintain a secure connection between the approximated sections of bowel.
In addition to the use of surgical staples, sealants, e.g., biological sealants, can be applied to the surgical site to guard against leakage. Typically, the biological sealants are manually applied to the outer surface of the staple line by a physician by spraying on, brushing on, swabbing on, or any combinations thereof. This manual application of biological sealant can lead to non-uniformity of the thickness of sealant across the staple line and/or omitting a portion of the intended coverage area due to inability to see or reach the desired location.
A need exists for surgical apparatus or structure for applying wound treatment material to an exterior surface of tissue to bond tissue, guard against leakage and the like.